Pirelli Tower

The Pirelli Tower, also known as Palazzo Pirelli or, popularly, the Pirellone, is a striking landmark in Milan's central business district, near the main train station. Originally built from 1958 to 1960 as the headquarters of the tire manufacturer Pirelli, the building served from 1978 as the seat of the parliament and government of the Lombardy region, until they moved into the newly constructed Palazzo Lombardia in 2011. The architects Gio Ponti and Pier Luigi Nervi designed the structure, which at 127 meters (more than 416 feet) was among the tallest buildings in Europe when it was completed.

Architecturally, the tower stands out for its 32 above-ground floors and a continuous curtain wall of insulated glass held in aluminum frames. A distinctive feature is the floating canopy roof at the top. The floor plan tapers from the middle toward the closed narrow ends, where the stairwells are located. The interior structure of tapering concrete piers allows for office floors that are almost entirely free of supports. Inside, visitors will notice the rubber flooring designed by Gio Ponti in the company colors of yellow, black, and white, known as "giallo fantastico."

After extensive renovation work beginning in 2003, the 26th floor, where a small airplane crashed in 2002, was turned into a place of remembrance. A redesigned belvedere on the roof also offers a view of the city and makes the building's structural framework visible. The Pirelli Tower also has a place in film history: it appears, among other things, in the opening sequence of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1961 film La Notte.